ELON — David Wood hugged his Elon University baseball teammates one by one after an impromptu gathering in the outfield at a practice in which he wasn’t participating in May 2011.

The Phoenix would go on to win a Southern Conference championship.

Wood would go home to New Jersey.

“We were driving home and he was crying because he had just said good-bye to his friends,” said Jaclyn Wood, his twin sister and an Elon soccer player. “He was balling his eyes out. He really didn’t think he was coming back. That was the plan.”

Perhaps that wasn’t the image of some tough-guy football player, but David Wood’s route was about to change again. He had determined that his baseball path as an outfielder — mostly used as a pinch runner in two seasons — wasn’t working out.

Football had been a fall-back option from his days at Saint Joseph Regional, where he helped the team to a state championship and earned all-state recognition.

“I decided I missed football,” he said. “I had to make a decision at the end of my sophomore year. I knew I missed playing football and somewhere I would play.”

He had checked in with football assistant coach Chris Pincince before leaving the Elon campus, but he fully expected to be joining the football program at Holy Cross, Georgetown or some other Northeast or Mid-Atlantic destination. Wood said a quick decision needed to be made because so many programs already had their rosters lined up.

It was an unsettling time because he had cleaned out his locker and cleared out his apartment, taking all his belongings to Park Ridge, N.J. Not to mention there was about to be another separation from his sister who had altered her college choice once before.

“And now I’m leaving her,” he said. “My parents were upset because they love Elon.”

By summer, an offer came via a telephone call from Ed Pinkham, Elon’s defensive coordinator. Wood was headed back to Alamance County, though he was about to step into a different world.

He had only spoke to Phoenix coach Jason Swepson, who had yet to coach his first game with Elon, on the phone. And he needed a crash course to learn about the school’s football players.

There was lots to do before he could land a role with the Elon football team.

“I needed some roommates,” he said, moving in with Spain, quarterback Mike Quinn and tight end Brice Wordsworth. “Guys I never knew before.”

That was a two-way street. Even on Elon’s relatively small campus, there are dividing lines. Quinn, who lives in New Jersey about a 15-mile drive from Wood’s hometown, had been in a class with his new teammate, but didn’t mingle with him.

“I knew the name David Wood. He played baseball,” Quinn said. “It’s probably hard for him to adopt. But everyone was embracing him.”

Wood had been busy transforming his body from the 5-foot-10, 150-pound outfielder to the 170-pound return specialist and cornerback. He was a regular on punt and kickoff returns last year, then became a starting cornerback this year, which is his junior season in eligibility.

“I had a summer to train and get ready,” he said. “The biggest thing, I had to put on some weight for football. I don’t mind the contact. I’m a little guy so I try to prove people wrong.

“I was nervous coming in and changing over. I didn’t know how I was going to play, not playing football in awhile.”

Swepson said he initially wasn’t ready to make a commitment with a scholarship offer. That changed, and Wood ended up with key roles nearly from the get-go.

“We’re glad that David is with us,” Swepson said. “He’s a mature player and he has some athleticism that we’ve been able to use in some different places.”

Previously, Wood immersed himself in baseball, figuring that would be his college activity. Jaclyn Wood often attended games, enjoying time with friends but not seeing much of her brother on the field.

“I would go and be there for him,” she said. “It was hard to sit there when he didn’t get in.”

As a pinch runner, he stole a base and scored the only run in Elon’s dramatic ninth-inning victory against Samford to start the 2010 Southern Conference Tournament, an outcome that helped propel the Phoenix to the NCAA Tournament that year.

“That was the highlight of baseball pretty much,” he said.

A year later, Wood wasn’t around for the end of the regular season after that gathering at practice. His departure meant he didn’t receive a championship ring for the 2011 regular-season accomplishment.

He said many of his baseball teammates, though “they understood what I needed to do,” didn’t think he’d really leave.

“It was probably the worst day of my life,” he said. “At that point, I thought I was leaving Elon and a great group of friends. I always really wanted to stay at Elon. I was devastated.

“I needed to go home and see what’s best for me.”

The baseball bonds have been good to grasp, though he rarely sees that group much these days.

Wood said it’s typical to receive an encouraging text message from baseball coach Mike Kennedy, who he has spotted at football games and considers that yet another sign of support.

“We all saw his high school highlights,” Kennedy said. “He needed to give football a shot.”

Now, Wood has an identity as a football player.

“I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know he existed,” Spain said of before Wood’s change in sports. “At first (when he joined the team), I just knew him as a speedy guy. It’s just incredible how he could come to the football field and not only play, but start as a corner.

“He’s always with us now. Once you join football, then you’re one of us.”

But just to make sure the baseball background hasn’t totally disappeared …

“I always give him crap about his batting average,” Spain said.

Yet the best part for Jaclyn Wood is that her brother still carries the label as an Elon student.

When he arrived as a baseball player, she was at Villanova in the soccer program. The twins had been separated, and that was unusual.

“My brother was down here and he said he loved it here,” she said. “It was very different. When I was at Villanova, I would talk to him almost every day. It was really hard, especially when I wasn’t happy.

“I think David is a little bit more laid back than I am. Doesn’t say as much as I do.”

By the second semester of their freshman year, she had transferred to Elon and became a soccer walk-on, a status that has since grown to a scholarship level.

With their hectic schedules in different sports, they have only occasional get-togethers even if they’re only a practice field away. Once a week, they’ll usually manage to hang out or grab a meal together.

Jaclyn has ended up a captain of the soccer team. On Sunday, she scored the winning goal in Elon’s Southern Conference Tournament quarterfinal game at Appalachian State.

“Being so far away from home, I’m so happy that he’s here,” she said. “I’m really happy that he didn’t decide (to transfer) because I wouldn’t be as happy if he wasn’t here. It would have been so different for me if he wasn’t here.

“Socially and academically, David has really done well here. I told him this was the place for him to be. I think it really is going to be a happy ending.”

The Wood siblings, who turned 22 last weekend, expect to walk together during commencement exercises in May. Jaclyn will leave with a degree as a physical education and health major, hoping someday to coach soccer.

David, who majors in media arts and entertainment, will stick around for a final season of college football next fall, pursuing a minor in business.

So for him, it’s like an extended stay, a far reach from the painstaking struggle regarding his future slight more than 17 months ago when he ended up in Kennedy’s office.

“A lot of crying and saying what I had to do,” he said. “It was an emotional time. It was a hard decision. Never thought I would be back.”

The last two autumns have worked out well for their parents, often able to make a weekend trip and witness a couple of soccer games and a football game.

Then it will come full circle for David Wood, the lone member of the family enrolled at Elon.

“We’re real close,” he said. “This is her last year, so I’ll be back without her. It has worked out great, no regrets.